UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Integrative Studies Seed Grant Program, offered through the Penn State Office for General Education, will support 71 different course development projects this summer. In response to the large volume of highly qualified proposals, the budget was generously increased by more than 50 percent by the Office of the Provost and the Office of Undergraduate Education.

Adding to the financial support, World Campus, the Schreyer Honors College, and the College of the Liberal Arts provided full or joint funding for 11 of the proposals. Thirteen different collaborating University units will provide additional wrap-around expertise and resources to awardees.

In April 2015, the University Faculty Senate approved a new integrative studies requirement within General Education, followed by the approval of implementation details in March 2016. Such courses have never been required or received a recognized designation at Penn State.

The aim of the Seed Grant Program is to incentivize faculty to develop integrative studies courses, through either inter-domain or linked courses. In doing so, the University can build the capacity to offer these courses to students. Details about the changes in the General Education program and requirements can be found at gened.psu.edu.

The awarded proposals include faculty from Penn State campuses across the state. All course ideas embrace the goals of General Education, specifically around the integrative thinking and learning objective and the new integrative studies requirement.

The awardees are (course titles are approximate and may change):

Abington

Ann Schmiedekamp — The Film Media and Extraterrestrial Life: Science Fact or Fiction?

David Hunter, Eberly College of Science; Paula Droege, College of the Liberal Arts; Andrew Read, Eberly College of Science — On Bullshit (Identifying Bias and Falsehoods)

Gary Adler, College of the Liberal Arts; Selena Ortiz, College of Health and Human Development — Healthy People, Healthy Society

John Waters, Eberly College of Science; Joel Waters; College of Health and Human Development; Jason Laine, College of the Liberal Arts — Human Anatomy in the Context of Renaissance-Era Italy

Bradford Bouley, College of the Liberal Arts; Michael Troyan, Eberly College of Science — History of Disease and Epidemiology

Heather McCune Bruhn, College of Arts and Architecture; Maureen Feineman, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences — Rocks, Minerals, and the History of Art

James Endres Howell, Eberly College of Science; Scott Smith, College of the Liberal Arts — Success and Challenges of an Inter-domain Course: Disseminating Science in Literature

Jennifer Savage Williams, College of Health and Human Development; Ted Jaenicke, College of the Agricultural Sciences; A. Catharine Ross, College of Health and Human Development — Linking AG BM 170 to New Food for All: U.S. Nutrition Programs, Food Security, and Economics

Molly Martin, College of the Liberal Arts; Alyssa Gamaldo, College of Health and Human Development; Stephen Matthews, College of the Liberal Arts — 3-Way Course Linkage on Health Inequalities – Social, Geographic, and Ethnicity

Jenny Kenyon, College of Arts and Architecture; Jack Hietpas, Eberly College of Science; Gary Chin, College of Arts and Architecture — Introduction to Forensic Photography linked with Introduction to Forensic Science

David Stensrud, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Graeme Sullivan, College of Arts and Architecture — Meteorology and Visual Arts: To Know Is to See

Ryan Russell, College of Arts and Architecture, Gary Chin, College of Arts and Architecture; Henry Pisciotta, Arts and Humanities Library — Information Visualization

Alex Hristov, College of Agricultural Sciences; Ken Davis, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Jennifer Baka, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences — Science and Policy of Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The Office for General Education is part of Penn State Undergraduate Education, the academic administrative unit that provides leadership and coordination for University-wide programs and initiatives in support of undergraduate teaching and learning at Penn State. Learn more about Undergraduate Education at undergrad.psu.edu.